Brain drain to lead to Care drain?

The “brain
drain” is a well-known phenomenon in Italy which doesn’t seem to stop. In 2015,
the last year for which data from Italy’s statistics institute ISTAT are
available, 23,000 young Italians left the country, 15 percent over the previous
year. Most of these people emigrating abroad are graduates looking for better
career opportunities abroad, causing an impoverishment of the country’s human
resources. The harsh truth to face is that Italy is literarily giving away its
most qualified professionals and is not considered as an attractive option for
foreign talents.

The brain
drain phenomenon deeply differs from any previous emigration wave. First of
all, as already mentioned, it mainly involves highly qualified people, but the
social change is broader, as for example, it is the first time that young
people leave home, in most cases leaving their parent alone, where there are no
other children in the family. In the past the family emigrated together or just
one of the children left. The consequences on the long run will be dramatic:
Italy has already the oldest population in Europe. The brain drain is likely to
trigger a consequent phenomenon: the ‘care drain’ as the elderly will be left
to fend for themselves.

Tracing back
the history of Italian emigration, from 1870 to 1970, according to data of the
“Italian federation of emigrated workers and families”, 27 million people
expatriated in the first massive emigration flow, 7 million of them only in the
post war period alone, their favourite destinations being Germany, France,
Belgium and Switzerland).

From 1970 to
2005, the emigration flow continued but Italy became also a receiving country
and the number of immigrants exceeded the number of those emigrated.

With the
great economic crisis which started in the US in 2007, spreading fast
worldwide, Italian emigration rocketed, overtaking the number of people
immigrating.

The two great
emigration flows differed deeply. From 1870 to 1970 the poorest part of the
population, with low literacy levels emigrated pushed by Hunger and
despair.

In the most
recent emigration, according to the report on migration of the research study
centre Idos, on behalf of the OECD, the number of Italians residing abroad
reported in the Consular Registry office is 5 million and 200 thousand people
and 50% of them have a diploma or a degree.

A huge loss
for the country in economic and cultural terms. A study recently conducted in
the article "Quantifying the negative impact of brain drain on the
integration of European science" written by Omar A. Doria Arrieta, Fabio
Pammolli and Alexander M. Petersen points out that the lack of equilibrium of
brain drain in Europe also negatively affects international collaboration in
the field of science and research.